Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Blackwater and the Holy Grail

[posted by Callimachus]

Doing research on private military contractors, I found myself on the Wikipedia page on the topic. And I read this:

Many theorists consider these private military factions as the equivalent of the Knights Templar during the Crusades, raking in huge coffers by assisting the Christians against the Muslims.

Whew. Every time I think they've finally turned the corner and become usable for honest research. Oh, and the "external links" section on the topic includes a Sean Penn article.

But the entry is sprinkled with warnings that the information is unsourced and may need to be revamped to meet Wikipedia policies. Which I suppose embraces a claim of "many theorists" and a citation of none. So that's progress.